Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Checker Boards are FAST. Fast.
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Many layers of Garden Design are slow to medium, getting there.
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Not a Checker Board.
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I designed this pool, and its garden 4 years ago, below. Checker Board photo was taken before we finished installing the plants. FAST ! A little cheating, Checker Board going into sod, quite the shazaaam fast.

Before & After, below. Checker Board I designed, installed for client.
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Interesting, knowing where to place a Checker Board. Client, below, had a drainage issue in this zone, and this zone is used during monthly neighborhood parties with kids, parents, dogs, margaritas. .
What to do? Checker Board. Of course. (Muse certainly entertains. Until drawing their garden had zero clue a Checker Board was the solution. Go Muse !)

This client, above/below, was vision-quest-challenged. I only let you know, because many people are. Easy fix, set up a dry run, below. Windy day, Nature had her fun, yes?

Remember, this zone, above/below, had a drainage issue, the pics don't show the Caterpillar contouring the water into a proper swale, drainage issue solved.

Stone pavers, above/below. Sod. INSTANT.

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Perhaps you want to commune with Muse, maybe a Checker Board is in your garden, waiting to be revealed.
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Don't know how to commune with Muse? Correct, it's not an instant relationship Muse provides. Muse is met at the altar of grace, joy, humility, letting go of character defects offensive to Muse, while being fearless in taking what Muse gives to all. Take.
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Garden & Be Well, XOT

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Age 8, saw my 1st garden like this, below, in Augusta, GA. The adults were content to stay inside & chat. I did the rude child thing, and begged to go outside. They were glad to get rid of me. Had to be, I was more than glad to be gone from them. Not until I saw the movie, Beetlejuice, did anything describe how I felt, going outside that house, that day, into the garden. Another world.
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The garden was entirely green, wild, mischievously wild. Looking ahead, left, right, the garden was telling me to go everywhere, all a fabulous mystery, yet speaking to me in a language I knew. And, that feeling of being alone, in this adventure, perhaps explains more fully, in adulthood, studying historic landscapes across Europe for decades. And creating the garden for myself.
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Few ask for. or understand, this type garden, up front, in USA. I design as much of them into the ubiquitous requests, as I can. A tiny handful, across 3 decades, have asked for the full monty.
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I was caught by this garden, below, being presumptuous. It's owner, in the public eye for decades with an international successful career, and public persona so Cruella Deville, Meryl Streep played her in a movie. The garden, below, takes her mask off. Anna Wintour's garden, below.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Totally designed, below. Obvious pruning is at front left near'ish the top. A mini-cathedral design. Not so obvious are layers chosen NOT to be in the design. Just as much thought goes into Le Jardin Rustique design as a more obvious potager.
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No, this is not a woodland walk that just 'happened'. But you knew that.
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Tapestry hedge, below, not a mono hedge.
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If you have the good fortune for a tree such as this, magnificent tree, and can create a path, copying this, in a brand new USA subdivision, about 98% of your neighbors will complain. Knowing you need to clear the brush away. More, none of those neighbors will be inclined to speak to you. Nope, the HOA nasty gram will land in your maibox. They aren't bad people, but they are people who cannot 'see'. By extension, not liking this patch of your landscape, they won't like you.
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Personally, I think it's wonderful how a garden can push people away, or draw them in.
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If you've been reading for awhile, you know what's next in the design for this garden room, below. Correct, a garden room with more formality. Preferably with a meadow too. Gardens are all about contrasts.
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Often, thru history, homes/gardens that are left as a museum, lose the Le Jardin Rustique portion rather fast, about a decade. Why? As wise as the new stewards are, they don't 'get' the Le Garden Rustique, at all, in the least. It goes back to Nature. Finally, someone steps in, the teacher, in reality a garden shaman. The 'Foundation' sees what the benefactor created, and now must be created anew. .Winterthur is a good example of this phenomenon. Hmm. Seems a new naming opportunity has arisen.
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Are you here yet, in your garden passion? Hungering for Le Jardin Rustique?
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Ironically, it is the Le Jardin Rustique maximizing pollinator habitat and increasing crop yields nearby. Only 'Man' would educate, in 2 different schools, agriculture/horticulture. In America the schooling dividing agriculture/horticulture begins early, if there is schooling at all. Someone decides to volunteer a school vegetable garden. Go team. Alas, that school vegetable garden disregards, completely, ornamental horticulture increasing crop yields by 80%. When you know this, you are a garden shaman, indeed.
.Thomasina, has this character, a 'nature' shaman, she's the character of the witch, 'Mad Lori', in the woods.
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Same story line, in metaphor, of Babette's Feast. The majority wanting what they know, not accepting something different from what they know, aka HOA nasty gram. Yet, when the abstainers, through happenstance, gain entry into the unknown, they are changed, they understand what the shaman knew all along, and want it too.
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When is a little woodland garden path, more than a little woodland garden path? Today. Here. And, always.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Pulling the gate/columns forward, below, welcomes you from the wide world into their private world, elongates the entry, and adds a foyer to the front door. Painting the columns same as the house adds them to the footprint of the home, enlarging the home's territory.
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Painting the columns a different color, or if they were stone, still adds good features, excepting they become part of the garden, not the house.
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Great wisdom leaving the tops of the columns empty.
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Front door & light fixtures chosen well, they make the house seem taller.
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Note the gutters, below. Copper color, not the brick color. Well done.
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Roof, below, is like jewelry for the house.
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Repetition of square shapes, below, highlights the fabulousity of the tall round urns at the windows. Super contrast.
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This garden design has been done for centuries. Have seen it on several continents, and at all price points. Done it myself, more than once. Looks fresh & new with each reincarnation.
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Even the front door handle was chosen with care. Drapes vs. blinds, again, well done.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Great minds, or, so much for original thinking?
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First, below, I noticed the rusticity, my oeuvre.
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Then searched the enfilade, how far can the eye travel? Are there cross axis, below?
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Oddly, I sense the loss of canopy, below. Seeing what isn't there, but had been there for many years.
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Do you see the missing trees too?
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Finally, oh my gosh, design plan, almost exactly, for my new home, a ca. 1900 American farmhouse.
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Ironic, at the front end of my career I was far too 'good/smart/unique' for a design like this, below. Me be ubiquitous, by choice?
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3 decades later, humble enough, and excited, to copy what has worked since before Christ's era, BCE.
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My iteration, George Lindsey Tabor azaleas, deer don't seem to bother Southern Indica azaleas so very much, and fruit trees, along with yet-to-be-determined trees. Of course I could go ahead and choose all the trees, but what fun, contemplating choices.
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Instead of the water feature focal point, below, a harvest table/chairs, under an arbor, gobsmacked with white roses, 4 huge pots exploding with hydrangea, and 4 sentinels, camellias, at the far corners, beyond the Tabors. Coming home to my first trinity, created 3 decades ago, Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Hydrangeas, Camellias.
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Paths will be #89 granite gravel, the quarry a mile from home.
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Why so simple? Age. Preparing to be elderly in this home, wanting this garden to see-me-out. Deer proof, drought proof, bug/fungal proof, unskilled labor proof, enjoyment vs. labor percentage totally in my favor, most importantly, beautiful. A garden to be viewed from the house, and to be enjoyed within.
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More amazing, date of the garden, below, is the era of our farmhouse.
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Boxwood not included in my garden, alas the killing fungus.

Pic, above, here.
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Do not be afraid to copy. Fact, copying is unique at each site. Another fact, if it's pretty in another garden, it will be pretty in yours. Last fact, gardening is recorded in written form for over 11,000 years, you will not recreate the wheel, roll with it. Cheaper, faster, prettier to roll with it. I got the memo, go me. Younger, that memo was stupid & not meant for fabulous me. How do you think I became a Garden Expert? Made all the mistakes bigger & more thoroughly than you could ever imagine.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Many times I've used a bit of woodland, buffer between neighbors, as a faux focal point. Occasionally, space allows for this much meandering path, below. Most of the time, the path is a few steps leading to a faux gate. In each interpretation the path is 'real'.
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In the moment, below, Nature's yearly leaf fall. Took me an ancient amount of time to realize, the trees are fed and enriched by letting go. And the same is true for us, if we'll let go. During senescens the color of photosynthesis is lost, and the true leaf colors appear. Another story written in plain view, by Nature, another metaphor. Beauty in letting go.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Pic, above, here.
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Using the 3 elements, above, of garden design, plan your garden. A serious landscape, in vanishing threshold with interiors of your home, expanding lifestyle, all with ease, beauty, joy while amplifying your personal aesthetic.
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Don't know the 3 elements, above?
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Ceilings, walls, floors. Put another way, trees, shrubs, groundcovers. Another description, foyer, dining room, living room. Yes, now you are seeing the trinity of elements in the design, above.
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Two types of ceiling, above. Can you label both? Sky & trees. Three types of flooring, above, low meadow, gravel, a chevron pattern. Three types of walls, tall shrubs, medium shrubs, contrasting texture shrubs.
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Pond is a nice focal point viewed from the foyer, yet equal in use to both living room & dining room. .
Focal point on plinth, on axis with don't-know-from-this-pic.
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Never thought about a garden like this for your home? This garden will take your further, faster, lasting longer, than most other types of gardens.
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Starting and ending points for this garden remain 180 from a garden beginning, "I want hydrangeas, peonies and..."
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Thursday, July 2, 2015

When I was in college, SMU, someone mentioned the sidewalks in front of Dallas Hall were poured, AFTER, they saw where students tread dirt paths thru low meadow.

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(Privately, off topic, in person, you may wish to ask me about the tunnels under those sidewalks. That was a crazy fun date.)

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Architecture, interior design, color, materials, scale, below, are sublime. In addition, flow is the unseen subliminal element. So good it's taken for granted.

At our ca. 1900 American Farmhouse architecture home, below. We haven't lived here a week, how can we possibly know where to put paths, parking courts, drives, terraces, pole barn, and links throughout all?

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Overflow parking, below, from my office view. My little van, Tess, is in front of the house, and another truck with long open bed trailer are in the drive along the opposite side of the house.

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The golf cart has yet to be brought from the house we sold, nor 2 tractors and 2 more work trucks.

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None of the above traffic/parking issues includes guest vehicles.

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I adore this.

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Creating flow/parking in our own garden.

Foot traffic, below. Tractor Supply had a single boot choice for my new home, below. Work shoes from my former cottage garden, not sufficient in the least.
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Drive, front parking court, overflow parking, a path, hugging the house are speaking. Good news.
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Further from the house, the flow has no voice.

At the back of the house, 2 out buildings, at left & at right, must be moved, due to flow.
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Building at left is impeding vehicles, and building at right is blocking the deck we're building around the back of the house.

Both buildings a century old, clad in metal more recently. We'll reuse the wood in our new shed I want built in the orchard, to be planted.
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Hope you sense the best element in creating flow. Anticipation.
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Every layer of a garden is exciting. Never tiresome.
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More than anything I want several dump trucks arriving with our gravel. Too soon, don't know exactly where to place it. Patience. This is where G*d taught me patience, in a garden. We all get life lessons, yet they arrive in their own time and have different teachers. If we don't 'get' the bigger life lessons, they keep arriving until we do.
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Patience. Your impatience is why I have a career. Every client, just like I was at the front end of gardening, thinking they can put in a garden, do, and it's horrendous. After my first garden making, vile of course, it was off to years of Extension Service courses, symposiums, then another college degree, in horticulture, finally touring historic gardens across Europe for 2+ decades. Now, I know a few things about gardening, and thrill at the new lessons still arriving, every day.
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Moving into this new home/garden it is clear, I am an experienced gardener but a new farmer. Adoring a new learning curve. And living Thomas Jefferson's, "but tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener.", backwards. G*d has a sense of humor in this new lesson, which feels like a gift, not a lesson. Great segue into Joseph Campbell's, "

When you follow your bliss... doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else.

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning... a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be."

Monday, April 13, 2015

Why pics in my garden are not perfect, but better. It's more important for you to see, 'real'. Why? You must be able to walk into your garden, any day of the year, and be able to take a roll of 36 slides, each worthy of a magazine cover. A major national magazine. Allowing for a bit of primping, those pics must be worthy of an international book cover.
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Ready to play in my league?
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This morning, below, shot less than 5 minutes ago. Walking to give the chickens a treat.

Stewardship of this garden began, horrendously, ignorant of stewardship. Waiting for denial to pass, decades, Providence, nevertheless, allowed the garden to steward me.

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This is where I fly.

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Terrible phone conversation last nite with my sister. Selling my home after 30 years, she asked, "Will you dig up all your plants and put in grass?"

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No, I responded, simply.

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If the next owner wishes to, that is their privilege.

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Here, this spot in my garden, pics above/below, a double axis, same path shot from opposite directions. Merely 1 pivot point in my garden where I find relationship to Earth, myself, others, Providence, stewardship. The more you go inward the more you outwardly connect.

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Lawn? Fertilizers, weed killers, fungicides, all toxic to the water supply & mychorizzal fungi, earthworms, pollinators. Mowing, watering, no shading of the house in summer. Wrapping little strips of green meatballs and dead mulch. High maintenance, literally, and figuratively.

More, my sister chastised me deeply for where I will be moving. I listened, not responding.

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I am moving into my beliefs. Yoked tightly with Providence. Flying. Ships were not built for harbor. Sailing.

A story from Terry Hershey, " His dream started when he was in college. Jeffrey Coale wanted to own a restaurant. Training in cooking and restaurant management helps, but so does money. So Jeffrey Coale went at it methodically. He worked for a number of years as a government bond trader on Wall Street. At night, he attended classes at the French Culinary Institute. He quit trading and took a job as an apprentice chef at the Louis XV restaurant in Monte Carlo. Next, he returned to New York to work at the Alain Ducasse restaurant. Wanting to refine his understanding of the wine side of the business, he then took a dream job as an assistant wine master at Windows on the World, at the top of the World Trade Center North Tower, in August, 2001. Meanwhile, Mr. Coale, 31, sifted around for a location for his restaurant. He had looked at several properties in Greece and New York.

“He left really good money to make $10 an hour at Windows,” said Leslie Brown, his sister. “But Jeff never settled for something. He always followed his passion.”
Jeffrey died on 9/11.
Tragedy? Yes.
Someone wrote that there are many tragedies in life, but dying young while living a passionate life is not one of them. As Paul Harvey would say, “here’s the rest of the story…” After Jeffrey’s death, reflecting on that devotion, two friends switched to jobs that better suited their own true interests. Two other friends broke off unsatisfying relationships. In memory of Mr. Coale, they are going to follow their passions.

Maybe that’s where we get stuck. We’ve been invited to fly… but somewhere along the way we’ve been told that……we are not enough…we are small and not sufficiently gifted…we are carried by the winds of public opinion…our identity is owned by shame…we owe it to someone to be perfect…we seem at the mercy of our grief or our rage" Terry Hershey

. Packing & staging & taking loads to the thrift store, in my library, I pulled yet another book for thrift store. Bought years ago from the same thrift store, bag-of-books-$1, I hadn't read it. The author's name popped, Terry Hershey. Reading it now.

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In the coop, below, this morning. After the massacre a couple of months ago 4 heirloom chickens remain, below, Alpha girl, marmalade, and her side kick Beta. Horrifically injured during the massacre, I don't know why they survived, to thrive. More, Alpha girl taught me a few things about alpha's. Gravely injured, 'alpha-dom' must be-will be maintained. Body language, eye language, attitude kept Alpha girl alpha. Unless I had witnessed this libretto I would not have believed it.

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"Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."

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My Camelot, my garden, is within. It travels with me.

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Yes, there is grief in this particular layer. Deep. Enough to keep me from flying? Hardly. Not flying would be fear. Consistent foe, I've learned to silence, with a simple question, 'What would I do tomorrow if I were not afraid?'

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I first sought a beautiful garden, a place of grace & atonement. More was given, than sought.

Shot yesterday, below, this new path follows a well trod dirt path my client created during 2+ decades in his home.

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Stepping stones, and edging stones were chosen to copy the type of stone put in by the builder originally.

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Gray cobblestone edging is more common, but not for this site. I needed to flow with the history already created, aka keep it simple sweetie.

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This project should be completed by the end of the week. Can't wait to do the walk thru with the owners.

Foot path location, below, used to create new formal stone path. Many garden paths would be complete, with just stones in dirt, below. This home is formal French architecture, the garden is not large, the entire garden is treated as a courtyard.

His original dirt path, below.

Stone edging piled, below, are called rubles. By us ! I think they are correctly named stone rubble.
Brown/beige/white gravel was chosen, too, to copy the existing stone color on site.
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Owner enlarged the scope of the project once we began. Always happens. Always. I think it's because owners 'see', once the paper design becomes 3-D. Of course there is great humor in knowing a few days earlier only a certain amount of money was available. Then, poof, voila, money landed from space to enlarge their garden project.

Paths are instant in a garden. Compare top/bottom pics. This project is incomplete but the changes are 180.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Kitchen view, below, Foundation for the Summer House was built into the modest swale. Neighbor's rainwater had flooded the back yard for decades. 15 minutes work with man/Caterpillar, water flows in desirable watershed management to the stream.

There is an order to installing landscapes. Here: clearing, contouring, placing paths/edging/gravel, laying sod, next, plantings.
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Another view from the kitchen, below.

Homeowner chose white for the home. Cannot wait for that phase to be completed. My Landscape Design included French doors from the terrace level, into the garden, plywood, bottom right, Of course a few windows and bricks had to be knocked out. Ironically, husbands think a Landscape Designer will waste their money on 'flowers'. The force-of-Tara is quickly realized when they see I've knocked holes into their home. Big holes. Flowers, indeed. One must see flowers easily, and get to them freely.

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Cobblestone edging is used nearer the home, rustic rubbles further away in the Wild Wood.

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Crazed week with this project. Client panicked during the process.

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Once the invasives were gone she wanted groundcovers to be planted first. No. Will trample them to oblivion with equipment/materials if that is done first. "Oh."

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Truly panicked. It's ok. The process is older than Christ's birth, no voodoo. A scientific template. Trying to direct men/equipment/materials, client created great angst for herself, and my team.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Their back yard, thankfully, a quagmire. In addition to significant man made drainage issues they have an underground spring.

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Thankfully? They had to hire help, me.

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#89 Granite gravel, above/below, is best, color/size, for their garden. I never tire of seeing before/after of cobblestone edging.

The area was not pretty, below, when we began.

Seems like the older women get the more men their projects demand.

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Especially love women demanding a beautiful easy landscape, and needing a commercial dumpster in their driveway because they are doing a 'few' things inside too !

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These women are my tribe.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at jobsite last week.

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Women who know their driveway must be jackhammered to oblivion are a particular delight. If you are a woman, with a man in your life, no worries, Man Coaching is free. Husband's refer to me as, that woman, up front. Within days husband's say, 'call Tara'.

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client,local/on-line.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.